Voiding The Voucher Program A Smart Court Move

HOWARD GOODMAN COMMENTARY

The most striking thing about the Florida Supreme Court's decision on school vouchers is how obvious it is.

In a 5-2 vote, the court has declared the Opportunity Scholarship Program "in direct violation of the constitutional mandate for a uniform system of free public schools."

So, barring a change in the state constitution, it looks like the end of this pet program of Gov. Jeb Bush, which uses state money to pay tuition for 733 students who left failing public schools to attend private schools. There's no appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

About time.

I have nothing against private schools. And I have plenty of sympathy for the low-income, mostly minority families depending on this program to send their kids someplace better than the F-rated school down the street.

In fact, my wife and I sent our own son to private school for three years because we didn't like the looks of the local middle school. Yes, we had some discomfort in buying into a solution that's not available to everyone. It's not fair that we had the freedom to do the best for our son, while other families just as motivated don't have the income to do the same thing for theirs.

So I agree with the school-voucher advocates: Better opportunities for an education shouldn't be the exclusive province of the better-off.

But you don't correct this inequity by stomping all over the constitution.

And if you're the governor and Legislature, you don't do it by draining public money from the public schools you're sworn to protect.

Here we are, near the very bottom among states in the amount of tax money each resident spends for education.

And what's been this governor's solution? To make Florida the first to install a system of state vouchers to shift students to private schools.

Of course, vouchers are just a small part of Bush's school reform. Public schooling in Florida is now a perpetual machinery of testing and grading, rewards and punishments, all in the public eye.

For the lowest-performing schools, there's the ultimate penalty: The state shifts money from school districts (making them poorer) to a voucher fund that lets students bolt to private schools (making them richer).

But wait, it gets better! All those state standards, all that testing and grading -- not required at private schools.

In other words, our money is paying for students to go to schools that aren't obligated to prove they're doing a good job. Or even hiring certified teachers.

Haven't accountability advocates been telling us that's been the problem with education in the first place?

What a great policy. Accountability is expected of everyone -- except students and staff in Bush's favorite program. We're sending the most educationally needy kids to schools whose top-notch performance we're supposed to take on faith.

Predictably, we've seen reports of fraud at several voucher schools and the criminal conviction of one school operator over theft of public voucher money.

It's taken six years, but Bush finally has said something that starts to sound sensible about this whole business: He'll raise private funds if that's what it takes to keep the program going. Assuming the money is truly a private donation and no one gets a tax credit, as has been floated, this sounds like a swell way to help poor families pay for private school.

It's simply wrong to harm underfunded public schools by draining away their money and students to private schools -- unaccountable schools, at that.

Bush insists that vouchers are needed to scare the worst schools into improving. This sounds like a doctor who'd threaten his patients with shooting them in the leg if they didn't get better. It's an incentive, yes, but it can't be the best way to improve anybody's overall health.

Let's hope the Florida Supreme Court has done for school vouchers what that federal judge in Pennsylvania did for "intelligent design":

Expel an educational movement that really isn't very smart.

Howard Goodman's column is published Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. He can be reached at hgoodman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6638.